As a bridal wear seamstress, Michelle spent her days creating dresses for brides on the cusp of a new beginning. But behind the scenes, she was struggling to establish a new beginning of her own. After Michelle’s marriage ended, overwhelming financial strain stood in the way of building a new life for her and her six children. Her ex-husband’s bankruptcy had left a lasting mark on her credit, putting a traditional mortgage out of reach.

Michelle had a steady stream of work, but without health insurance or access to credit, financial emergencies loomed large. Her challenges pushed her to be resourceful. “You think outside the box when you're up against a wall,” she says. “And I was always thinking outside the box.”

Michelle started working toward a university degree in English, not just for education’s sake, but as a strategic move to access student loans for financial emergencies. Her academic progress opened the door to the Canadian Armed Forces where she joined as an officer to secure health coverage for her six children. “My kids needed therapy, dentists, braces. I had no health care. So, I joined the army,” she remembers.

A few years into her new career, Michelle and her children — then aged 13 to 18 — had moved 12 times. They had been renovicted from rentals 10 times, forcing the kids to attend seven different schools. Desperate for stability, she scoured Kijiji for unsold homes she could rent.

That’s when she stumbled upon Habitat for Humanity New Brunswick and its Affordable Homeownership Program.

After being approved into the program that same year, Michelle purchased her own home with an affordable, geared-to-income mortgage. Habitat New Brunswick worked with her to design a modest but functional house with three bedrooms upstairs and three in the basement, providing enough space for her children. And to complete the family’s 500 volunteer hours, Michelle brought her own construction skills to the build, hanging drywall, sanding, installing cabinets and stair treads, and even sodding the lawn. Her older children pitched in too.

Volunteers came from across the country to help build the home, and, grateful for the support she received, Michelle paid it forward. After moving in, her family volunteered on seven other Habitat builds. During the pandemic, they formed their own crew — hanging drywall, sanding, painting — giving back to the community that had lifted them up.

The stability Michelle established in her Habitat home helped her repair her credit rating. In 2024, Michelle took another bold step. She refinanced her home through a commercial lender and paid her Habitat mortgage in full, enabling Habitat New Brunswick to give another family a similar opportunity. “Banks treat you differently when you're a homeowner rather than a renter,” she notes. The refinancing also gave her the flexibility to cover post-secondary education costs and orthodontic braces for her kids, along with other unexpected life expenses.

Today, Michelle is a captain in the Canadian Armed Forces, a financially secure homeowner and a successful entrepreneur. Her children, now aged 19 to 25, have a stable foundation to launch their own lives. “There’s something about what homeownership does for your soul,” she says. “There is stability, that feeling of home. It’s something that can't be underestimated as far as my kids are concerned. We've lived here the longest of any place we've ever lived … my kids feel safe to leave the nest and try out new things, because they know they can always come home.”